lw9 - Right hand Left hand technique - cont.

Lessons of The Week was a series of guitar lessons circulated in "News", in the pre-web days of the Internet. 29 lessons were written before it died out, and I happende to write the first three. They represent a little bit of internet history, as they may have been the first guitar lessons written for the internet.

The lessons were all written in txt format - they were written around the same time as Tim Berners Lee were sitting in Switzerland specifing the first version of html. I have converted them to html, and may have added a few links from the lessons.

This is part two in a series of how to develop good right and left hand
technique for pick-style guitar.

PART II -- left hand position

This series is the approach that I use to teach pick-style technique
to all of my students. For best results, take these articles to an educated
and experienced teacher who is stylistically broad based and who is
acquainted with this approach, so that(s) he may coach you.

**Disclaimer**

This approach is to attain the maximum possible cleanliness and
articulateness in ones tone. It will also give, ultimately, the greatest
speed with the least health risk. I am careful to never say that it is the
CORRECT way to play. There is no such thing, and a lot of people do great
things with really sloppy technique. Wherever possible, though, I will
indicate the exact benefits of each technique.

If you are left handed, please excuse my right-handed bias, and
reverse all of the relevant direction and hand indications.

B) LEFT HAND THUMB POSITION

With your fingers in this position, the TIP of your thumb should be
touching the midline of the neck; that is, behind the G string. Most people
tend to have the thumb peeking up over the top. Also, most people tend to
squeeze much too tightly, grinding in with the knuckle of their thumb.

In this position, the tip of your thumb should be behind the top E
string, directly behind your fingers.

C) LEFT HAND WRIST

In all cases, the left hand wrist should be straight. Many with bad
thumb habits tend to rest their palms against the back of the neck. Avoid
this! Also, many who adapt the "good" thumb position tend to jut their
wrist forward. You should be able to place a straight edge from the back of
your forearm to any of your last knuckles.
Benefits:

The thumb position is required so that:

the wrist can be straight.

The fingers can come down straight and not mute the strings beside
what they are actually fretting (remember the first time you tried to
make a "D"?).

With the thumb low, the average full sized person can reach across
eight frets. With the thumb high, the average person can barely span
four frets.

The wrist position is a matter of your health. If you practice a lot,
especially with any speed, and you have a bent wrist, your tendons and
carpal nerves are obstructed and you run a greater risks of repetitive
strain injuries.

Exceptions:

Some styles, blues for example, demand having the thumb over the top
to assist in muting strings. Here it is often appropriate to pick all six
strings and mute all except the ones you want to ring. Also, the thumb
should come over the top to give you leverage in a bend. In neither case
should the palm touch the back of the neck. Just the webbing between the
thumb and the first finger.

There are certainly other examples of specific tones that you would
want to get that demand a thumb-over-the-top technique. In general, though,
for pristine tone, avoid it.

Make sure that you assign 1 finger per fret... just like they were set up a
page ago.

Continue this pattern up the neck until you can't get clean notes
out anymore. As you do this, do not stray from this checklist:

A) Guitar Position (see part I)

B)1. Left Hand Thumb Position and range of motion (midline [G string] to
edge)

2. Left Hand Thumb Pressure
If this continues to be a problem, take a couple of passes of
this exercise without your thumb touching at all. This will give you
an idea of exactly how little pressure it takes. Then put your thumb
back down WITH NO MORE PRESSURE. It is just there as a guide.